Welcome to your weekend – and happy Saturday morning!  For those of you who are new to the weekend reading, this is a weekly compilation of all my favorite articles, blogs, videos and books from the previous week.

For you Christians, I was thinking about what it is like to be a Christian at tax time. If your bank account is like mine, then its a great deal lighter than it was last week at this time! But praise God that He has taken the greatest thing of all – my sin – and made me as light as a feather. Amazingly, when He took that, I don’t seem to mind anything anyone else takes in this world!  Indeed, even at tax time, I encourage you to recall the words of Paul in Philippians 3:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Doesn’t your heart just SING at those words??!!

Now…on to the news…I regret this will be shorter than usual. I spent the week at the Together for the Gospel Conference, and that consumed my full focus and attention. You can listen (soon) to the messages from that conference here.  My favorites were from John Piper, Thabiti Anyabwile, and C.J. Mahaney.

Speaking of John Piper, I read this blog called ‘The Root of Mental Health’ and really enjoyed it. Sometime I need to write a little about my own battle with anxiety (thanks Matt for that encouragement), but in the meantime this blog is a great little resource.

This was my favorite blog of the week: What are the books you come back to? – this is Joel Miller at his best. Though I have to say that what I like best is the concept and the principles here, some of the books he comes back to himself left me scratching my head for their obscurity. I ordered one of his favorite poetry books from Scott Cairns and read through most of it yesterday, and it wasn’t terribly impressive (thus far anyway).  So take that for what its worth…

As you probably know, Jordan Spieth won the Masters last weekend (and I think Jason Day is leading this weekend’s event as I type).  Kate sent me a puff piece that some Christian did on him. The tone is awfully fawning, but if you get through that, its still encouraging.

On to politics…

Donald Trump accidentally said something right about the Bible and politics. He said one of his favorite verses was an OT law quotation “an eye for an eye” and said so because he feels Americans are getting a raw deal from our international neighbors and that there’s a lot we can learn from the Bible.  Now, I think Donald Trump is a blind squirrel finding a nut here – so don’t attribute my praise to any semblance of Biblical or moral intellect.  But he’s right to apply this passage (as far as it goes) because that law in the OT was implemented at a time when the nations around Israel were unjust in all their ways. The whims of their sovereigns, and not true justice, were the order of the day. I’ll let you form the rest of your thoughts from here…

Even though I am supporting Governor Kasich, I think he had another wild week. In the first part of the week he was excoriated (on Wednesday) by Al Mohler for his lack of a Biblical stand on religious liberty issues – specifically on the North Carolina bathroom bill that’s been in the news.  Mohler is 100% correct – listen here (skip to the last 4 minutes or so to get the story).  Then, in the latter half of the week, the Governor met with potential victims of sexual abuse – young students – and was ridiculed by everyone in the leftist media for suggesting that young women at college stay away from parties with a lot of alcohol.  Fancy that – being pilloried in the press for using common sense!  But as Jennifer Rubin says, not only is this ridiculous, its not the whole story – now keep in mind that Rubin is Kasich’s more staunch opponent in the press. She has continually bashed him, and called for him to drop out. That should tell you something about the nature of this article, and how comical the press has become.

And – FINALLY! – the press is writing about how Donald Trump will likely have his high water mark on the first ballot at the convention in Cleveland. As you know, I have been talking about this for a while, but the media haven’t been articulating the obvious for a while – mostly to keep some kind of suspense (and ratings) around the race.

This is a problem for Trump, especially given the work the Cruz Campaign has put into rounding up the delegates necessary to win in Cleveland.  There’s a long story in the Post this week about just that.  And another one here titled ‘More Republican delegates chosen, more problems for Trump’

Of course the problem in all of this is still the fact that Gov. Kasich is still the only one who seems to have the chance to win in the fall – and not by a little. This was articulated again this week in a very large state by state study (linked above – another one focused on Cruz specifically here). Such is the quandary that conservatives find themselves in this year.

Finally, I got to read a blog post from Jen Wilkin this week titled ‘Why Hospitality Beats Entertaining’. This was really fantastic, because Kate and I love having people at our home, and I thought Wilkin’s words were well said.

That’s it!  Now go enjoy your weekend!

PJW

Welcome to the weekend!  It’s Master’s Weekend, and you can find the realtime leaderboard here, and online streaming here.

Speaking of the Masters, if you’re following things then you know that one of the meltdown stories was Ernie Ells 9 on the very first hole of the tournament – here’s the video.  My four top pics for Master’s dominance are heading into the weekend in decent shape: Rory, Spieth, Day, and Rose.  I’m hoping for a Jordan v. Rory Sunday special!

Politically speaking, we’re heading into a part of the campaign season that focuses more and more on winning over the delegates headed to Cleveland for the GOP convention.  Politico took a national survey of their insiders – folks who work in the business of politics – and found that 90% of them think a contested convention is likely. I just post that because I’ve had a few folks ask me this week if I thought it was possible – yes, it’s possible, in fact, its probable. What this kind of scenario means is that campaigns must woo the people heading to Cleveland, and/or get local supporters elected as delegates in each state’s convention process – something that differs across the map. This makes things, well, complex!  Team Trump seems to be unprepared for this style of political battle, and reports were out today about a recent example of issues on this front (here’s another story on this front as well). The conventional (no pun intended) wisdom seems to be that Trump needs to win on the first ballot – at least that’s his best shot for taking the nomination. The next two ballots will likely play to Cruz’s strength, and ballots 3, 4, 5 etc. play more into Kasich’s strength – there’s a reason why Cruz and Trump want Kasich stopped prior to this point – also see: Trump, Cruz Work to Block Kasich From Ballot at Open Convention.

Another question I got this week was, “What in the world is all this talk about Paul Ryan being put into nomination?”  Anyone can be nominated at the convention. You don’t have to win any primaries to win the convention and be the nominee. But the likelihood of a “white knight” coming in to steal the show is very unlikely. It’s not unprecedented, but in the modern era, it hasn’t happened.

The next question I keep getting goes something like this, “Why is there a convention at all – why not just let people vote and be done with it? Aren’t we a Democracy, after all?” The shorthand on this (with some background) is this: We are not a Democracy in the strict sense. We are a Republic. The wheels of government in America were designed to move slowly and cautiously, and you might say that the same goes with our elections. Therefore, in a way, the American idea of politics is at root very similar to that of how its government was designed. The latter was built to check the power of one federal branch, the former to check the passions of the populace. Remember, the founders lived through the French Revolution, which left that government destabilized and left the country at the mercy of idiotic (and bloody) popular whims for decades. Even after the formation of the American Government, the founders did not have an easy time of it. Thousands of people were rioting in front of the President’s residence in Philly during Washington’s Presidency over a proposed trade deal with France. Jefferson secretly funded anti-federalist (anti-Washington) newspaper run at arms length by Madison – all the while serving as Secretary of State to Washington (you think SuperPACs and Glenn Beck are out of control, the vitriol during these years was untamed)!  What I’m getting at is this: craziness in the press, dangerous riots of the populace, and high flung rhetoric from rival politicos is nothing new, in fact, I’d say that we could be reverting back to the days of our founders and the wild west of American politics. At least that’s a working theory…

On similar matters….A while back Politico Magazine did a sort of hit piece on John Kasich entitled, ‘How Kasich’s Religion Is Hurting Him With Conservatives’. I thought it was a pretty interesting piece, though not very flattering. The intersection of politics and religion have always shaped the history of the worlds. This is the case for every religious military and political leader since time began. So paying close attention to how these men speak about their faith is important. Learning about their upbringing is significant.  For instance, Kasich’s faith was formed as a boy growing up in the Catholic Church, but was later informed and forever cemented by the tragic death of his parents. Ted Cruz grew up around faith. He made an early profession of faith (as this article describes), but he grew up in a type of church that seems closer to televangelism than a mainstream evangelicalism.  Trump does not have a faith background, but champions the cause of Christians on the stump.  All of these things matter, they are all factors that go into the making of a man/woman, and help paint the portrait of the next leader of the free world.

On the Democratic side, I found a post today over at WaPo extremely interesting.  They detail how Bill Clinton was getting shouted down by a Black Lives Matter protestor this week, and how he responded. The complaint seemed to be that his Crime Bill (from the 90’s) has incarcerated tons of black Americans, and has gone too far – maybe there is some truth to this, which even Clinton acknowledged. But the protestor was holding a sign with an old Hillary quote that was supposedly damning, but that old fox defended the quote, and did so very well. While Bill Clinton certainly ranks as one of the most immoral political figures of the late 20th century, his political skills are still very sharp.  Key Quote from Clinton’s defense:

Clinton pointed to the signs. “This is what’s the matter,” he said. “I don’t know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-olds hopped up on crack and sent them out onto the street to murder other African American children. Maybe you thought they were good citizens. She didn’t! …You are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter! Tell the truth! You are defending the people who caused young people to go out and take guns.”

Now, on to other items…

There’s an important piece in the Columbus Dispatch about a new church document released by the Pope. The document address several social issues, and the biggest headliner from the theological treatise is that church members should follow their consciences rather than strictly stick to church rules. From what I could tell, this was aimed especially at matters of birth control and allowing divorced members of the church to eventually be allowed to take the sacrament again. The language is very gracious, but what comes screaming off the page of this story is this question: to what are the consciences of these church members bound? If they are to follow them so closely, what is informing them if not church rules? It is the consciences of men that MAKE church “rules/traditions” – and this is nothing short of an accidental admission that church rules aren’t sacrosanct in every single situation in life. What is missing from this is the role of SCRIPTURE. This is what started the Protestant revolution hundreds of years ago. Crisis points in life came, the church had their own rules, and valued them so highly that they couldn’t change them, so they allowed the conscience of church leaders to stomp out objections. But Scripture must be our guide as Christians – it is what binds our conscience! It is the ultimate authority – not a parallel authority to the church, which has just tacitly admitted its own imperfection. I hope my Catholic friends see this amazing story and realize how significant it is. I’ll leave you with the words of Luther when he came to the crisis point before the Council of Worms:

Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason – I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.

The Wall Street Journal has a good piece on the continuing Clinton Email probe. Here’s a key excerpt, “The judges have taken unprecedented steps to resolve this case. It is exceedingly rare—almost unheard of—for a judge to allow discovery in a FOIA proceeding. This is a testament to how grave Mrs. Clinton’s email problem is.” This is a painful reminder to the Clinton Machine that this problem isn’t going away – and it isn’t simply the figment of a partisan group of GOP conspirators.

This one is kind of silly, but some good points pervade the writing, “Sheep Tragi-Comedy #1,317: ‘The Draad Kruiper'”

Jon Bloom has a good piece this week over at Desiring God called, ‘How to Resist Temptation’s Mirage Moment’. Good insight here, “Satan manipulated Eve’s God-given desire to be happy and used it against her.”  Then, “Don’t allow your passions to be your dictators (Romans 6:12). Remember, emotions are gauges, not guides. They are indicatives not imperatives. They are to be directed, not to be directors.”

Interesting: ‘LaCroix Bubbles Up in Sparkling Water Brand Competition’ – if you’re house is like mine, then you don’t even have pop/soda stocked on your shelves. Instead, we have LaCroix, and a variety of other like-products. Guess we’re just part of a larger trend…

I’ve tried to be more regular in my updates of what books I’ve read this week in addition to the articles and blogs. Only have two for you this week as I’m in the midst of some larger works that are taking more time:

1. The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones – Steven J. Lawson – I really enjoyed learning more about Lloyd-Jones, but whether or not this was the best rendering of the Llyod-Jones story, I’m not so sure.  I’ve enjoyed Lawson’s other works a great deal, but felt this wasn’t his best work. It was a bit repititious, and I would have loved to see Lawson dig deeper into the personal details of the great man’s life. The focus, of course, was specifically on the Llyod-Jones’ preaching, and the book certainly maintained a lazer-like focus on that topic. However, some more context about who the man was, including his personal experiences, and interactions with friends and family would have provided me with more appreciation for his life as a whole.
2. When I don’t Desire God – John Piper – I’ve been wanting to read this book for several years now. It’s been on my shelf staring down at me, and I have often averted its gaze, putting off what I hoped to get done “soon”. Well, it was worth the wait!  More direct and refined in style than ‘Desiring God’, Piper has done something really special here. Not only does he summon the right Scriptures in the right way in the right places, but he also brings luminaries from 2000 years of wisdom to bear on his topic. The topic is really the desires of the Christian, and how to “fight for joy” in everyday life. So very practical is this book, and so very well done, that I would whole-heartedly recommend it to any seasoned Christian. You will find perspective, and practicality in these pages, all supported by the weight of Scripture, and the wisdom of a man whose walked the trails of this life for decades.

That’s it – enjoy your weekend!

PJW

Welcome to the weekend!  I read a lot of articles, see a lot of videos and news reports on everything from theology to politics. Because I work in politics and study theology, two years ago friends have asked me to compile what it is exactly that I read throughout the week…here’s your weekend reading…

Front and center in the Wall Street Journal land weekend was gigantic article called ‘ The Challenge of Easter’.  The fact that these kinds of articles can still be written in major newspapers these days is really encouraging.

Speaking of the WSJ, they had an interesting article called ‘It’s Time to Rethink the Bucket List Retirement.’  What they’ve stumbled on here is that humans were never designed for the kind of retirement Americans often picture. Now hundreds of interviews with retired couples have led to the same conclusions that could have come by simply reading the Bible a little more closely…and perhaps listening to some Piper. 

I was interested to see that Tesla’s new ‘Model 3’ will be half the price of its last design.  I have conflicted feelings about the company – they basically subsist on government tax credits (otherwise they’d go belly up) – but I’m intrigued by the concept, and love their designs.

Tim Challies linked to this discouraging little item: Andy Stanley’s Problem with the Bible. For those who have not read much about Andy Stanley, or maybe read a book of his in passing, the sum of his situation is this: some of his earlier stuff is find, but the more he’s done ministry, the less he’s relied on the Bible for his “preaching” and teaching. Sad situation.

Viral Video of the Week: SAD BEN!  I haven’t yet seen the Batman v. Superman movie, but some of you might recall that Snyder’s Superman (to which this is a sequel), had many a pastor lapping up the Hollywood produced Sunday School curriculum – no, I’m not kidding.  On its own merits that movie was, okay.  It was a lot of action, and not a lot of character development. When I saw SAD BEN was going to be cast in the role of Batman, well, let me just say I wasn’t surprised that critics have been harsh.

Top article that I didn’t get to read this week: Has Ken Ham embraced Evolution? 

And I LOVED this article from the Journal on how to tame ‘The Email Beast’ – I’m all about finding ways to be more productive!

On to politics…

The President met with the  Frenchy Prez this week, and the White House must have been taking its editing queues from SAD BEN because they hacked up what that foreign dignitary had to say….oh ya, the topic? Radical Islamic extremely bad terrible terrorists and their terrorism.  Did you ever read 1984? Because….

On the Presidential front, when I evaluated all that I had read this week, I realized that the candidates talked about very little that was substantive.  Here’s a summary: Trump’s Campaign Manager was arrested for battery, Kasich incorrectly ate NY Pizza with a fork – then explained it was scalding hot, Trump said that women should be punished for having abortions – in an imaginary world in which abortion was illegal, even Ann Coulter his biggest superfan was aghast, then he walked it back, then got crucified on local Wisconsin radio (Trump had a bad week). Cruz spent the week talking about how Kasich won’t be eligible at the convention, but RNC rules committee peeps tell a different story saying they’re likely to scrap the 8-state rule, and the shadow campaign for delegates continues which prompted the RNC to put up a little website explaining the convention process, which might be helpful for those of you scratching your heads at all this process-oriented news.

Its been a long time since our President was truly picked at a convention – but this is the kind of thing that used to happen more frequently. There have been presidents who were picked without even showing up to the convention. So Americans need to start getting a better handle on how the process works. As things continue forward, you’re going to see more scintillating stories like this one: ‘Unbound Republican Delegates Could Decide Trump Nomination.’

A side note to my friends: Most of you know that I’m working for Kasich. But I know and see his flaws – my close friends understand this. If you know me well, then you also know I’m not the biggest fan of Ted Cruz and I feel strongly that Donald Trump is Nikabrik’s Candidate. That said, I have tried to be fair in my conveying of information to you, though I am not going to be unbiased and have zero obligation to be so.  My non-political friends always want to know my thoughts on politics, and my political friends often want good recommendations on theological/Christian reading. I appreciate the emails and the engaging notes and phone calls I’ve gotten on the Presidential race, and appreciate the correction and guidance of good friends!

In case you missed it, there’s a big battle going on in GA right now over religious liberty.  The battle lines are Corporations (and now the GOP governor) vs. the conservative statehouse and the people they represent. Here’s the NYT story. Here’s a poll my firm produced on that matter. Sort of a classic case of the evil corporations versus the will of the American people.

Straying away from politics now, you might have heard that Mother Teresa is on her way to sainthood.  What does that mean exactly? Tim Challies explains the interesting process here. 

Lastly, what books have I read/finished in the last week or so, and were there any worth recommending?  Here’s the list:

1. Carry on Mr. Bowditch – Jean Lee Latham – I read this with my kids, and really enjoyed it. It’s the true story of Nat Bowditch, often considered one of the founders of modern sea navigation. I especially liked how it instills a positive outlook on Math for the kids.
2. Humility: True Greatness – C.J. Mahaney – I read this with some good friends and truly enjoyed it. One of the best sections of the book was how Mahaney described sleep. Interesting stuff – you’ll have to pick it up for yourself!
3. Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson – I’m trying to read more classics, and this was one of my favorites from childhood. It was equally enjoyable as an adult. I loved all the Scottish isms!
4. Homer’s The Odyssey: Christian Guides to the Classics – Leland Ryken – My daughter Chloe had been putting a report together on The Odyssey, so I picked this slender book up as a trial run of sorts. Ryken has a wonderful gift for showing how classical literature interacts with Biblical principles. It reminded me of how Tolkien always said that every good story reminds us of the Great Story. I would definitely recommend any resource from Ryken on literature.
5. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume III – Edward Gibbon – this was volume three in my quest to read through Gibbon’s legendary 6 volume history of Rome’s fall. This one was interesting because it included a lot of interaction between the famed Bishop Ambrose, and Justinian (the mother of the western emperor at the time). This is doctorate (or higher) level reading though. Every sentence is so chalked full of million dollar words that I find myself enjoying the reading simply for the language!
6. Beowulf – Tolkien translation – I must admit that this was tough sledding. There are easier english translations out there, but the great thing about this edition was the commentary Tolkien provides in the back. Very helpful.
7. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship – Colin Duriez – This book took me WAY too long to read, but that’s because I didn’t want to finish it too quickly!  For a nerd like me, it was like savoring a rich coffee or fine brandy – you don’t want to gulp it down. You want to let the flavors dance on your tongue a little. I found the writing here pretty good, and the interactions between Tolkien and Lewis helpful in understanding their literary worlds.

That’s it!  Have a great weekend!

PJW